Wajdi al-Ahdal

“They’ve compressed my human existence into a small, dirty triangle, ignoring all the rest of me.”

Land Without Jasmine is a short mystery story set in Yemen by award-winning Yemeni novelist Wajdi al-Ahdal. The story involves the disappearance of beautiful university student Jasmine. Each chapter has a different narrator, beginning with Jasmine herself and includes family members, witnesses and police investigators. At the start Jasmine complains of the harassment she receives daily at the hands of lecherous males. “I consider this mass gaze, which comes from all directions, to be a noxious type of male violence.” “I used to ignore these fleeting touches, thinking them a kind of tax exacted from every girl who ventures out on our repressed streets.” After her disappearance different people shift into the position of suspect but the tribe metes out its own justice to her most ardent admirer, a love-struck teen, who is devastated by her disappearance. The later part of the book moves into magical realism with talk of jinn and dreams, the ending left inconclusive.

I found this both a courageous and disturbing book. Courageous, as the author has already had death threats relating to his work. The book is highly sexualised and I found the creepy attitude to women frightening and disturbing. al-Adhal obviously also finds this behaviour repulsive and indirectly condemns it in his work. I found the ending somewhat abrupt and unsatisfying. Overall, while on one level I admire what the author has done, this story doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth.… (mehr)

I feel like something was lost in translation between me and this book. The blurb described it as a "satirical detective novel", but I think it really helps if you know in advance that it totally subverts the genre by not giving you a satisfying ending. Then again, maybe the different literary tradition of Arabic means the detective genre has different conventions! I don't know.

Aside from that, though, this is a novella with a social conscience, more a critique of Yemeni society than really a detective novel. I enjoyed it.… (mehr)